A microcomputer-assisted pathology database

A microcomputer-based pathology database system was developed for routine work in a surgical pathology department. It is a wordprocessor that a pathologist can use to make a report, but the data are stored automatically and can be retrieved when necessary. It can store the data for more than 40000 cases, each comprising accession number, the name of the patient (with ID number), age, sex, clinical and pathological diagnoses, and histological findings, written in free-text style in less than 1000 characters. An index of words used in the free-text is constructed to facilitate retrieval of the cases based on the histological findings. The data in the hard disk are transferred to a core memory, and relevant cases can be retrieved by referring to any item, including histological findings.<>